Sony: the Internet isn’t robust enough for an always-connected console

Sony confirmed the PS4 wasn’t an always-connected console back in February. Microsoft still hasn’t announced anything officially about the next Xbox, and won’t do so until May 21, but an internal email leak has calmed fears the machine would require the Internet in order to function.

Now, Sony’s Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has gone a step further, suggesting that even if they wanted to, an always-connected machine just wouldn’t work at the moment. The reason? The quality of Internet connections around the world.

It’s easy to forget that Sony and Microsoft need to sell their consoles in territories other than the US, Japan, and the wealthier countries that make up Europe. While the Internet may function very well in these areas of the world, Yoshida points out it’s just not robust enough of a network elsewhere to guarantee a reliable connection.

He’s right, and there’s even areas of the US and Europe that still struggle to get a reliable connection, in terms of both maintaining that connection for long periods of time and how fast it is. An always-connected console just wouldn’t work for consumers in those areas, and therefore Sony and Microsoft would ultimately be catering to a smaller global market.

There’s still a question mark hanging over how connected both the PS4 and Xbox 720 will be. Sure, they will both function offline, but will a connection be required to activate new games? Hopefully we will find that out well before either machine launches and discover if Sony and Microsoft are trying to remove the used games market from the equation.